Friday, November 2, 2007

The Scariest Pumpkin of All

Well, October has come and gone, and with it the holiday that encourages our creativity, and tests our ability to carve likenesses out of the sallowed flesh of pumpkins. Andy chose to use his blank canvas, as many an artist do, to offer us a subtle commentary on the powers-that-be, and perhaps a glimpse into his worst nightmares realized. The likeness of this pumpkin, in case you couldn't tell, resembles our current Vice President, Dick Cheney, and was modeled after last week's cover of the New Yorker, a sketch of what I'm sure many would agree, is the scariest pumpkin of all. And what's equally scary, and just a little weird, is the recent announcement that Cheney and Obama are somehow distantly related! What!?? Yes, according to a press release a couple of weeks ago, Lynne Cheney revealed that while researching the family tree for her recent book, "Blue Skies, No Fences," she discovered her husband and presidential hopeful Barack Obama were eighth cousins, both descendants of a French Huguenot named Mareen Duvall. Yikes, that's a little spooky. I wonder if this little piece of information will matter one way or another to American voters. And does this mean if we elect Obama that we've participated in the perpetuation of dynasties in American politics? Well, it's a stretch but they are related. And Dick Cheney has now been a part of four administrations--Nixon, Ford, Bush Sr., and W. And by the way, if we were to elect and then re-elect Hillary, the nation will have endured 28 consecutive years of governing by the same two families, the other of course being La Familia Bush. There's a Hendrik Hertzberg piece in the Talk of the Town of the aforementioned New Yorker issue that discusses the history of dynastic politics. Check it out, it's really interesting.

I chose a more light-hearted subject for my Halloween pumpkin, a simple black cat, Zooey's doppelgänger if you will.